The 27-year-old Fiorentina striker suffered a right knee injury in January and missed four months of action before returning to the field late in the Serie A campaign. He played in three games at the end of the season, and finished with 15 goals in 20 appearances.

Here is more World Cup roster news from around the globe:

NASRI FAILS TO MAKE CUT IN FRANCE

In one of the bigger surprises from Tuesday, Samir Nasri was left off France’s 23-man roster.

Nasri was not included in the Brazil-bound squad or in the list of seven reserves that France coach Didier Deschamps revealed, and the reasoning for that was because the midfielder has not played as well for Les Bleus as he has for Manchester City and is not content with coming off the bench.

“Samir’s performances with the France team were not at the level of his performances with his club,” said Deschamps. “He’s an important player and a regular starter at Manchester City. That’s not the case today with the France team, and he also said he’s not happy when he’s a substitute.

“I can tell you that you can feel it in the squad. Because of those two or three reasons, I decided not to select him in this squad.”

Among the notable players included in France’s roster were Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema and Patrice Erva.

I grew up in the Inland Empire in Southern California. I played against Bocanegra at a rival high school (and Lenhart in my indoor league), my younger brother was on the same club team as Donovan, and got to watch my other brother play rival to Mo Edu (and Tony Beltran and Eric Avila). Those are just the players within a short distance of my home town. They’re not all at this world cup, but yeah, CA has some good players.

well California does have 40 million people. like 13% of the country’s population and loads of Hispanics and soccer interest so no wonder. now if you told me Idaho had like 6 NT players then i’d be shocked

Hope Falcao doesn’t rush back only to go the Stu Holden route and get hurt again. They should really let the guy rest and rehab, though I understand the desire to have your best player on hand for the World cup.

Because they don’t all have pride in representing their country. France is a funny place for immigrants they feed you and cloth you and take care of you if you’re sick, but being accepted is another story.